Today a poster deleted almost all of his/her posts. This is not anyone's right to do because we are a community and such behavior impacts all of us; imagine, there are now multiple threads with holes in them that don't make sense.

We have now disabled users' function to delete posts and edit them. We may consider adding a function where users have 24 hours to edit but that is something we will consider later. If there is some over arching important reason you want your post edited, like factual errors, then email

We reserve the right to edit any post, and your request must only be for very serious reasons.

In addition, please use the private message function to do personal communications, and do not post such communications in threads. We do not want to clutter up threads with "you are great! yeah!" and the like. This is not pointed at anyone in particular but applies to everyone. Once in awhile is OK but not every day, every thread.

...We have now disabled users' function to delete posts and edit them. We may consider adding a function where users have 24 hours to edit but that is something we will consider later ...

This seems a much more civilized approach. Or perhaps the ability to only edit one's LAST post and perhaps that be time-delimited as well. I am afraid you are going to end up with shorter, but less involved posts to the detriment of dialogue.

Do we assume that someone who has deleted ALL of their posts has 'self-banned' his/her own account?

Demetri

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"Religion is a neurobiological illness and Orthodoxy is its cure." - Fr. John S. Romanides

The person who did it probably does not want to post here but if he/she wants to return we will consider it because of his/her state of mind at the time he/she deleted the posts. However, we will take strict measures if something like this happens again (although it theoretically can't now that Bobby has disabled editing posts), including banning an offender for life.

That's just great, now this will be like beliefnet, where if ya post a dumb typo or grammar mistake, or even need to clear up a simulpost flub we are left with having to make another post that sez 'what I meant to say was ...'

Mind you, I understand, I just think it sucks that it needed to be done

I encourage everyone to make use of the "Preview" feature when posting, so you can proofread and do other similar things and then edit your post before posting if you think it is necessary/warranted. This should help at least somewhat.

That's just great, now this will be like beliefnet, where if ya post a dumb typo or grammar mistake, or even need to clear up a simulpost flub we are left with having to make another post that sez 'what I meant to say was ...'

Mind you, I understand, I just think it sucks that it needed to be done

I agree.

Can we have our edit function back, please?

It really bugs me when I misspell something or otherwise make a mistake.

I promise I won't go back and delete all my posts.

I'm much too lazy to do that!

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The first condition of salvation is to keep the norm of the true faith and in no way to deviate from the established doctrine of the Fathers.- Pope St. Hormisdas

I'll be blunt, yea blocking everyone from editting and deleting their posts frankly "sucks." I think its extreme and contrary to the established nature of OC.net. Here's what I propose...

Since most of the folks here have been posting awhile, and have put in a great deal of hours on the forum, how about we just have your word that you won't delete anything?

It boils down to the fact that OC.net is a community, not a dictatorship. I want everyone to be able to freely contribute and freely use anything here. But when people go and delete their posts, it kinda ruins it for all of us.

I like the idea of there being a time limit on editing, it looks like a good compromise. I know a lot of people can't always get to the boards every 24 hours, so maybe a little longer might be better? That would prevent somebody from wiping out hundreds of posts yet at the same time always peopel to edit as needed.

All grammatical errors solely because I was not able to edit this post.

I seems a question of ownership to me. DO I own my words? or does some one else?

Why not detach the DELETE function from the EDIT function.

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"Where I live in Manhattan and where I work at ABC, people say 'conservative' the way people say 'child molester.' Leftist thinking is just the culture that I live in and the culture the reporters who populate the mainstream media

I think a slightly wider window of opportunity than 24 hours would be good. Maybe Bobby could re-enable editing for a while (if everyone promises to behave ) and over that period collect statistics on the time lapse between an initial post and it being edited for whatever reason (fix grammar, remove offensive references, delete ad hominems etc.). That would give us a rough idea of what is a reasonable period of grace during which posts could be edited after which they are locked down. I suspect that no one would notice the restrictions as all of our normal editing needs should fall within that grace period. If anyone had a good reason to edit a post outside of that grace period, they could always PM their favourite Admin/Mod

Of course this would all mean more work for our good Cap'n. I'm sure he thrives on this stuff but he probably has other things he would prefer to be spending his time on.

I seems a question of ownership to me. DO I own my words? or does some one else?

Why not detach the DELETE function from the EDIT function.

Once you post something, good or bad it is indelibly stamped on all who read it. Once you hit post, your words belong to the community.In real life we can't go back and edit things we said to people. If we were stupid or hurtful, all we can do is apologise, ask forgiveness, and try to correct our behaviour in the future. A certain amount of leeway is allowed on the forum because we are not face to face with the people reading our posts and cannot pick up the vibes from people that tell us it would be a good idea to drop it when typing up a statement.

The EDIT function can effectvely be used as DELETE, the only difference being that an empty post remains. You can see who later posts were responding too, just not the content of their post.

Why not have it so you can only edit or delete the last 1 or 2 or 3 posts.

After 3 posts have passed everyone else has read the un-edited post and it has gone into the public record anyhow, but I do like to correct spelling if I notice it straight away, or sometimes immediately tone down a post.

After a couple of posts worth of time it's too late and it is dishonest to edit something that everyone else has read and often responded to.

After all I'm sure we are all guilty of proof reading in the preview window and missing something

It's as if we read what we thought we wrote not what we did write. I know I do - frequently

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"Never let anyone try to tell you that, in order to be Orthodox, you must also be eastern. The West was fully Orthodox for a thousand years; and her venerable liturgy is far older than any of her heresies."- St. John Maximovitch

I understand the concern. The holes left are unfortunate, not just for current members, but for "lurkers" out there who would have benefitted. Many of the missing posts were intelligently and provocatively written.

It would be extreme not to allow editing because of one member's moment of weakness in a community that strives for (for the most part ) mutual respect.

I'd prefer to trust the community and nix the time limit idea, hoping and trusting there will not be a second offense.

Or at least make the time limit generous... 48 hours at least, so damage by possible vindictive acts can be limited, but members are not punished.

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"To live is to change, and to become perfect is to change often." - John Henry Neumann

I'm sure the person who did it had their reasons - which I'm sure will never be aired here publically.

Logged

"Where I live in Manhattan and where I work at ABC, people say 'conservative' the way people say 'child molester.' Leftist thinking is just the culture that I live in and the culture the reporters who populate the mainstream media

I am glad, in a way, that this issue has arisen. Despite what we may at times wish, we truly cannot entirely retract our words. When we offer insult, the best we can do is offer an apology, ask for forgiveness and repent. We cannot call back our words any better than hunters can recall their bullets. By removing the "delete" function from OCnet postings, we posters are forced to confront this reality, and more seriously reflect on the impact of our postings before postings. Perhaps in this way our postings will become more thoughtful, reflective, and charitable. Comments? :-";"xx

It should be pointed out that there is NOTHING in the terms of service agreement that new members sign about not deleting posts or carrying on a thread with mostly contributions from two members. So it appears the administrators are making up new rules as they go along. So to villify and ban someone over these "offences" is either inept leadership (not being able to articulate are your rules) or corruption of the leadership.

It should also noted that the terms of service agreement also states, "...you will not post any material which ...abusive...hateful, harassing, ... threatening..."Now a certain poster has continually created posts that are "abusvie, hateful, harassing" etc and he has not been banned nor publicly warned by the administrators. Isn't it obvious there is a very petty game of favorites being played here by certain administrators?

The admins have accomplished thier objective of villifing someone...the poster in question has already been called an "Xhole" on this forum while another poster continues to harass people with no response from the admins.

Seriously, we don't play favorites. You all don't see what we do behind the scenes. I know who you are talking about Nektarios and I have spoken with him several times about toning down the tone of his posts, which he did comply with, if you hadn't noticed.

As far the charge of us making things up as we go along, basically, yes. Sorry dude but you don't run a message board; it is really difficult work and the rules of the game change constantly. We have to respond as things develop.

basically, there has been a three-way hatefest between three of the participants and they have all imed us multiple times complaining. We are not a babysitting service and frankly after awhile we got tired of it and told them to stop talking to one another. They didn't listen.

As far as the charge that we didn't respond to one of the three persons' agressive ways, that is not true as in the beginning we answered each of the three's concerns and also it's not like this person became agressive for no reason. But anyway, like I said, we try to take care of these things behind the scenes.

Sorry to ramble but it's late and I don't like signing on and seeing myself being attacked by my friend. But being the mature board we are we don't censure criticism (as on other boards lol)

Now that all is said and done I wish to apologize for the harsh tone I used. I got my what I wanted to say out even if it was wrong of me to use the tone and say it publicly. May the board please forgive me.

I probably shouldn't have stuck my nose where it didn't belong. The Athonites say that they use beeswax because the bee is like a monk, only seeking out the sweet things (like flowers) and making good fruits like honey always minding thier own bussiness. Alas I am the house fly that is attracted to the rotten things in life (use your imagination here!). But that is the way events turned out. May all who have been wronged please forgive me.

I am going to add one thing: let no one assume they are the persons being spoken about in these threads. I DELIBERATELY used vague posting because I RESPECT our users and did not wish to denigrate anyone.

Anyone who has any remaining issue with us Administrators please contact us via private message and we will be happy to address the issue.

It also appears that the user who left and deleted his/her posts perceived that we favored someone else over him/her on this board. Let me reiterate that we do not play favorites, and any perceived action against certain parties simply did not exist. It's not like the five moderators on this site sit around and think, "oh yeah, let us get back at so and so!"